Galax’s population will soar in the coming week, as thousands of fiddlin’ fans descend on the city. Felts Park will open its gates at 7 a.m. Sunday for the 80th Annual Old Fiddlers’ Convention. The competition opens Monday night and lasts through Aug. 8.

Most of the convention’s expected 1,300 campers will show up Sunday to set up camp.

Patsy Stoneman Murphy was born in Galax and ended up near Nashville, a life journey that almost mimics the evolution of the country music her father, Ernest V. “Pop” Stoneman helped to bring about.

Normally, uttering the words “Patsy” and “country music” turns the average American’s mind to Patsy Cline, the pioneering female country singer out of Winchester, whose life was cut tragically short in a plane crash at age 30.

HILLSVILLE — A state audit of the Carroll County Clerk of the Circuit Court’s office has discovered repeat findings of issues that could reportedly lead to lost revenues and assets, or compromise the clerk’s fiscal accountability.

Last year, a two-year audit examining the months of Jan. 1, 2012 - Dec. 31, 2013, turned up more than a quarter of a million dollars in incorrectly classified, disbursed and miscoded funds.

Mandy Archer and Grace Kirk are upstairs at Chestnut Creek School of the Arts, merrily sorting through a scrap box, trying to place out squares, strips and odd-shaped pieces of cloth left over from previous projects for further use.

FANCY GAP — Motorists traveling Interstate 77 will notice new signs and weather detection stations being installed in Carroll County between mile markers 0 and 15 to inform them of changing traffic and weather conditions on Fancy Gap Mountain.

A total of 76 signs of various types and three additional weather detection stations will be put in place this summer in support of the active traffic and safety management system.